


Small dead animals and other Earth rituals

by ClaraZorEl



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex is kinda mean, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Danvers Sisters, F/F, Humour, Miscommunication, No animals were harmed in the process of this fic, Pre-Relationship, Teenage Supercorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29936385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraZorEl/pseuds/ClaraZorEl
Summary: Teenage alien Kara is not great at being human, and she's even worse at it around Lena. Lena is so so pretty and Kara really wants to get to know her but every time she's around her, she forgets everything she knows about her new language and planet. Increasingly frustrated, she decides to take matters into her own hands (or whatever humans say). Taking courting advice from her cat can't be that bad of an idea, right ?
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 34
Kudos: 383





	Small dead animals and other Earth rituals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SoiChibi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoiChibi/gifts).



> Before you ask, no, I absolutely do not support animal cruelty ; and no, I haven't gone insane. I have however been dealing with increasing anxiety and one thing that helps is British comedian [ Sarah Millican](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xC6ucjV7WY). How I got from that to this fic is anyone's guess. 
> 
> This is a birthday present for a very good friend, you can check her art on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/KatyLeKat) ! 🎉

There's a mouse on Kara's pillow. Small, grey, with cute little pink ears and a long pink tail. Also, it's dead, maybe Kara should have lead with that. There's a dead mouse on Kara's pillow.

It’s still warm to the touch, weights nothing in her hand and she eyes it inquisitively for a long minute, wondering what she should do with it. She doesn't want to be indelicate in case it's another one of these weird things human do sometimes, but well, it's a dead animal.

"Alex ?"

No reply. It's not unusual of her sister, but it's annoying. Kara rolls her eyes, even if Alex can't see her. Rolling their eyes is something human do when they're annoyed. 

"Alex ?"

Alex sighs loudly, removes her headphones and slams them on the book in front of her. "What ?"

"There’s a mouse on my pillow."

"What ?"

"There’s a mouse on my pillow," Kara repeats, cradling the little body in her hands so she can show it to her sister.

"Keep that on your side," Alex snaps.

Kara glances down. She’s stepped over the line of various objects Alex has laid on the ground to separate their respective sides of the room. There’s a couple of books, a pair of socks, clean hopefully, and a blue pencil Kara has been looking for for a week. It's her favourite. Not because it's blue, but because Lena gave it to her in English class when she snapped hers in two. She bends down to pick it up, slips it carefully in her pocket and extend a hand over the line to show the mouse to Alex.

"There was a dead mouse on my pillow," she says.

Alex rolls her eyes. "It’s a gift."

"A gift ?"

"Yes. A gift. From Streaky. Because he loves you. That's like a token of appreciation or something."

"Streaky loves me ?"

"Of course he loves you. He’s your stupid cat."

Kara refrains from pointing out Streaky isn't stupid, but she does take note of the fact he can feel feelings. She didn't know animals could do that.

"What should I do with it ?"

"I don’t know," Alex says, rolling her eyes again. "Eat it. Chuck it into space. Not my problem."

Kara doesn't end up chucking the mouse into space ; this doesn't seem like a nice thing to do. Instead, she buries it in the garden between Alex's old hamster, Rex, and her cemetery of goldfishes. 

***

Kara sleeps very well that night, or well, she only wakes up twice and doesn't scream once, head full of Streaky, small tokens of appreciations and the weird things Earthlings do sometimes, and in the morning she walks into school with a spring in her step, not an actual spring, she's just happy, because Earth is a very strange place but her cat loves her, and that’s a good thing. 

She sits down next to Lena and smiles at her in greeting. She never talks to Lena. Every time she's next to her, her tongue ties into knots. Figuratively. She can't tie her tongue on itself, not for a lack of trying, but it's something humans say when they’re nervous. Lena makes her nervous. She's a little bit Alex's friend because she's fully Sam's friend and Sam is the tall basketball player Alex keeps on making moon eyes at because she wants to crush her. Or something along those lines, Kara isn't sure she fully understands because humans are really weird.

Like she does every day in English class, Lena greets her with a smile and a few words. Today however, she also gives her something, a rectangular box, neatly wrapped in kraft paper decorated with hand-drawn stars. Her cheeks are a beautiful pink.

"It's for you," she says while Kara struggles to unwrap it without breaking the paper, "pencils." She adds something else under her breath, "of course it's for her you bloody idiot, you just clearly gave it to her," but Kara isn't sure she's allowed to listen. Instead, she nods once in gratitude and selects a green pencil, like Lena's eyes, to take her notes in.

She regrets, later during the lesson, selecting such a pretty one, when she accidentally get caught staring at Lena and neatly snaps it in half. 

She's a little sad about the pencil, but on the way home that evening, as Alex walks far ahead with Sam and she treads behind at a deliberately slow human pace that matches Lena's, she starts fomenting a plan. If her tongue insists on tying metaphorical knots, she's going to have to show her affection a different way, like Streaky.

She spends part of the evening hunting in the garden, capturing mice and releasing them because she wants a perfect one, until she has to settle for a big brown one because Eliza is calling her for bedtime and Eliza is very serious about bedtime. She speedruns, without actually running, it's another one of Alex's weird words, through Rao's prayer for the dead after snapping its neck, dashes across the street to leave it on the Luthor's porch and is back inside before Eliza has the time to call her a second time.

Lena doesn't mention the gift the next day at school and so Kara tries again the next evening, and the one after that, for a whole week until she sees Lillian, Lena's mean mum, grabing her gift with cooking tongs one morning to throw it in the trash can. Clearly, Lena's mean mum doesn't want her to find love and afterward, Kara starts breaching her no flying rule to leave her gifts on her windowsill.

It's not always a mouse. On one occasion, she brings a frog, and when she can't find any small animal, she lays assortment of leaves and wildflowers ; once even an old granola bar when she gets into a fight with Alex right before bed and then it's too late to hunt and it's all she has. Lena never mentions it, but her cheeks are pink a lot when she talks to her and she always saves her dessert for her, sometimes bargaining for a second or third brownie with the lunch lady on her behalf. Kara figures Lena doesn't know how to hunt and has to rely on other people's wares to show her appreciation. Wares is a nice word. She learned it from one of Alex's video games and the old man at the market always laughs when she uses it. In any case, the courtship is going well. At least until Alex's birthday party.

***

Alex stares at Kara's gift with a mixture of disgust and concern.

"Who," she stutters, casting a nervous glance around the room, "who's giving me a dead rat ? You know what never mind. I don’t want to know."

"It's a token of appreciation," Kara says, "because you are my sister and I want to show you love."

"It’s a dead rat Kara."

Silence falls on the room emphasising Sam's loud anguished laugh. Eliza slowly stops washing the dishes, Winn stops with his forkful of cake halfway to is mouth, James puts his camera down and Lena, Lena freezes, looking like she's trying to solve the anti-life equation by herself in her head before diner time.

"Oh my god Kara," Alex whispers in horror. "Animals do that. Cats. You're not a cat, are you ?"

"Um..."

"Do you really have to think about that ?" Alex snaps, pushing the dead rat as far away from her as she can. 

"Alex, be nice to your sister," Eliza scolds, turning away from the kitchen sink in a flurry of droplets and foam.

"She gave me a dead rat Mum. A dead rat."

Eliza sighs, suddenly sad and weary in a way that makes Kara very uncomfortable. "Why did you give a dead rat to your sister Kara ?"

"To show love and appreciation," Kara replies in a whisper so low she isn’t sure anyone’s heard her until Lena's chair scrapes softly on the floor and she makes her discreet way out, bumping into the kitchen counter twice.

"And have you, um," Eliza glances at the door, "been giving dead rats to Lena too ?"

"Dead mouses."

"Mice," Eliza corrects gently.

Sam laughs loudly, choking on thin air which is something Kara actually understands since she also often chokes on nothing at all.

"Lena's a vegetarian !"

Alex jumps off her chair, putting more distance between Kara’s gift and herself. "That's seriously what's bothering you right now ?!"

Eliza rolls her eyes, but doesn't look annoyed which is very confusing. "Go talk to Lena sweetheart, I'm handling your gift."

Slowly, Kara makes her way out of the house, stopping to check her reflection in the entryway mirror. There's a chocolate stain on her shirt, but it'll have to do. 

She finds Lena on the porch, sitting on the wooden bench with her hands under her thighs.

"Sorry," she says, sitting down next to her, "I didn't know you were a vagitarian."

"Vegetarian," Lena corrects slowly.

"Right. Sorry, I’m not good with words."

"I know. I think it’s the first time you talk to me directly." Lena hums. Kara doesn’t really know how to keep the conversation going. "So you’re the one who’s been giving me dead things."

Kara nods vigorously, jerking her head up and down so fast the whole porch shakes. "I’m sorry," she says, apologising again, "that was..."

"Creepy ?" Lena offers. 

"Creepy," Kara mumbles

"A little yes. But now that I know what was going on it’s sort of sweet I suppose."

"Sweet."

"Where did you get that idea anyway ?" Lena asks, not meanly, but with an open and warm expression that is perhaps even more unsettling.

"My cat brings me dead things because he loves me."

"And you’re bringing me dead things because...?"

"I want to court you but you make my tongue a knot so I thought I could bring you tokens of affection instead."

Lena laughs. Loud and warm as Krypton's Fire Falls. "English is not your first language, is it ?"

Kara is not supposed to answer that but it also feels wrong to lie to Lena. She opens and closes her mouth a few times before shaking her head as an alternative.

"It's okay," Lena says, "you don't have to tell me. But if you want to, maybe we could do that over milkshakes ? You can court me properly that way just, no more small dead animals. The flowers were nice though, you can bring me flowers if you want."

"I’ll bring you flowers," Kara says, nodding again.

"My favourites are plumerias," Lena says softly, her voice delicate like a smile. "And, um, you should talk to me more if you want. I like your voice."

"Thank you," Kara mumbles, feeling her cheeks heat up at the compliment. "I like your voice too."

Lena frees one of her hands and gently grabs Kara's squeezing lightly, like she's fragile and human. Kara's world narrows to this single point of contact and her body lights ablaze as she wonders how exactly she made it this far in life without knowing what Lena's touch feels like.

"I'll go get us some chocolate cake," Lena says, letting go of her hand much too soon. It's okay though, because before she rises from the bench, she kisses Kara's cheek. "No more dead animals, okay ?"

"No more dead animals," Kara promises, feeling both ashamed of all the mice she's uselessly sacrificed in the past month and weirdly floaty. 

She is in fact floating, something that she doesn't notice until Lena's disappeared into the house and Kara sees Streaky hurrying inside after her, a big twitchy frog hanging from his mouth. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you're new to my writing I'm not going to suggest you jump straight from this to my angstier stuff but if you want to have a good laugh may I suggest that you also read : [ Do you want to see my tits ?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058594) & [ I'ma take your girl out](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18266552) ? It would make me happy 🙂


End file.
